Bring Words

Hosea 14:1,2

The Prophet Hosea is calling the Northern Kingdom of Israel to repentance. They had turned away from the Lord and prostituted themselves toward false gods and useless idols. He illustrates this turning away through the prophet Hosea by having him to marry a woman, Gomer, who was a harlot. The beauty of the story is that after Gomer went back to harlotry, Hosea would go and buy her back and seek to restore there wounded relationship.

Hosea and Gomer had three children who were what we could call the offspring of unfaithfulness. Their names were Jezreel which means judgment. Lo-ruhamah which means no mercy. And Lo-ammi which means not my people. These three children were to be an illustration to the God’s people of their backslidden condition and what would come if they failed to repent. Throughout the whole book we see God’s patience and long suffering for a people he truly loved.

In the last chapter God makes one final plea for Israel to return. He is calling them to repentance and when they return back the only thing he is asking them to do is bring words with them. But not just any words. The words he was looking for were we have sinned!

Israel had reached such a low spiritual condition that they continued to bring sacrifices to offer for their sins, only to turn right around and go back to do the same sin over again. Hosea’s counterpart Isaiah told the people that God was “…full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.” Isaiah 1:11 God had become weary of his people taking for granted and advantage of the means of forgiveness that he had instituted for the their sins. That is why he said to bring the “Calves of their lips.”Repentance is more than just an acknowledgment of a wrong committed, it also contains a confession and a turning away from that sin or sins.

1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John instructs us that when we come before God we bring words with us that indicts ourselves before God. We don’t come with words of justification attempting to justify what we have done wrong out of weakness, accidentally, or unintentionally but just simply come and say I have sinned! God is not even looking for us to make promises that we will not do it again, he just wants us to confess it and turn away from it, having a change of heart and mind towards that sin. As long as we justify ourselves we can never be just or justified by God! Our being justified by faith only comes when we bring honest words of confession and a determination, by God’s grace, to turn away from that sin.

Being honest with God about our sin and ourselves and confessing our sin is the first step in a healthy and wholesome relationship with God. When we do this, we find that it is the way to a life that is at rest and peaceful because now “We have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

Pastor Robby